Abstract

Current educational policies and practices in Aotearoa/New Zealand were developed and continue to be developed within a framework of power imbalances, which effects Māori the greatest. An alternative model that seeks to address indigenous Māori aspirations and Treaty of Waitangi guarantees for self determination is presented here. This model suggests how a tertiary teacher education institution might create learning contexts wherein power-sharing images, principles and practices will facilitate successful participation by Māori students in mainstream classrooms. This model constitutes the classroom as a place where young peoples sense-making processes (cultures) are incorporated and enhanced, where the existing knowledges of young people are seen as ‘acceptable’ and ‘official’ and where the teacher interacts with students in such a way that new knowledge is co-created. Such a classroom will generate totally different interaction and participation patterns and educational outcomes from a classroom where knowledge is seen as something that the teacher makes sense of and then passes on to students